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Bookpoints - Summer Reading Program Software

Project Summary

The Galecia Group was hired by the California Library Association (CLA) to support implementation of the Great Reading Adventure (GRA) summer reading program software in Summer 2015. CLA had received a grant that would allow them to offer the program to approximately 25 California libraries to use for free but they needed help with the technical aspects of doing so. After that first year of supporting libraries on the GRA softrware,we advised CLA to rebuild the software on a non-Windows platform (Linux, Apache, PHP, Drupal). Using the GRA software as a model, we recreated the program (with some exceptions) in time to offer it to the libraries to use again the next summer. We named the new software Bookpoints. Most of the libraries stayed with the pilot project of Bookpoints and worked with us throughout the development and testing. They used the software successfully and have been excellent development partners. Throughout this time we have been working with the Library of Virginia who also used GRA and then moved with us to Bookpoints,providing critical development funding for our development efforts.They also hosted another group of libraries on their own VA server.

After summer 2017, we worked closely with the libraries that had used the software to identify the high priority features that they wanted us to focus upon. We also brought in additional development resources from BitSource and DevCollaborative to supplement our Galecia team led by Jim Craner. The 2017 version is being released in April, 2017 and libraries will be going live on their customized versions starting in May, 2017.

As soon as the 2017 season of summer reading is launched we will begin working on the 2018 version. We will continue to partner with the Library of Virginia, however, California libraries libraries have lost their grant funding and CLA will no longer be involved in the project. The Galecia Group will continue to work with Virginia and our development partners, and hopefully most of our California libraries to host and support them in 2018 but the service will be fee-based. We will also be seeking additional support to keep the development going.

As of Summer 2018, the Galecia Group will be providing configuration and support services and hosting libraries who would like to get help using Bookpoints. The open source software will continue to be freely available at https://github.com/galecia/bookpoints for libraries that wish to download and install it for themselves. The 2017 version will be available on our GitHub site soon!